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[RedVesuvius]

Is it a good, bad or fun idea to dress your marksdwarf squads in metal armor as opposed to normal leather armor?

Addendum: Do shields (of any material) interfere with marksdwarfship as well?

[Bumber]

It depends how much armor skill they have, how much they need to move, and how much spare metal you have lying around. Shields don't interfere, material doesn't matter.

[nanomage]

If reasonably cross-trained in melee and, most importantly, shield & armor user, it used tp improve their survivability against enemy arrows and help them flee from melee fast enough to allow your axedwarves to interfere and save the battle. However, reports of marksdwarves actually killing anything in melee with their shields or crossbow still were very anecdotal iirc.

Perhaps with the new combat system it now makes sense for them to dual-wield crossbow with an axe or sword?

[Telgin]

Will they use said axe or sword instead of the crossbow in melee?  That used to be pretty erratic, but I haven't tried it in the new version.

Anyway, I always suit up my marksdwarves in metal armor if I can.  It's rare that they need to run around anyway: once they get in position from the walls or somewhere else to fire from that's usually good enough.  A shield is always a good idea, but just make it out of wood since the material doesn't matter and heavier stuff slows them down more.

Furthermore, didn't Toady change some things about how bolts dealt damage?  Armor actually matters a lot more now I think, and if so that's all the more reason to give them armor.

[Dunamisdeos]

There's no reason not to give them metal armor. They are never going to skirmishing effectively no matter what they are wearing. The only reliable defense method I've found is firing from a safe location.

That said, it could also be argued that they are either going to be shot fatally or no, regardless of armor. The best defense against bolts is dodging, in my experience.